Pyongyang, January 17 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs Saturday gave the following answer to the question put by KCNA dismissing the U.S. wrong assertion over the nuclear issue and the issue of normalizing the bilateral relations:

The U.S. administration was recently reported to have asserted that the normalization of the relations is possible only when the DPRK dismantles its nuclear weapons, first of all, and the normalized relations will not be possible without the complete and verifiable elimination of north Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

This is a revelation of the true colors of the U.S. as a big power which regards the normalization of the relations as a gift to the DPRK and a distortion of the essence of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.S. is miscalculating if it considers the normalization of the DPRK-U.S. relations as a reward for the DPRK's nuclear abandonment.

The DPRK made nuclear weapons to defend itself from the U.S nuclear threat, not in the anticipation of such things as the normalization of the relations with the U.S. or economic assistance.

It is the reality on the Korean Peninsula that we can live without normalizing the relations with the U.S. but not without nuclear deterrent.

We have lived for decades without normalizing the relations with the U.S. and live on still with dignity.

The issue of normalizing the relations and the nuclear issue are the two separate matters from A to Z.

If there is something to be desired by us, it is not to normalize the relations between the DPRK and the U.S. but to boost the nuclear deterrent in every way to more firmly defend the security of our nation.

The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is, in essence, the issue of the U.S. and our nuclear weapons.

Though the bilateral relations are normalized in a diplomatic manner, the DPRK's status as a nuclear weapons state will remain unchanged as long as it is exposed even to the slightest U.S. nuclear threat.